The Owl and The Surfboard

[mightymonoped]

First new image of 2023. 
 

An unexpected spell of clear sky, albeit in pretty grim conditions as far as wind and seeing were concerned, had me scrabbling for a target last night. 
 

i decided, that I’d have a go at The Owl Nebula (M97), simply because I’d never captured it before and wasn’t really sure what I would get if I did. 
 

The 80ED was already locked and loaded for broadband, so I checked my PA, slewed to target, autofocussed, calibrated guiding and set my Autorun for 40 x 180s. 

 

Clearskies and The Met Office were no use to me whatsoever last night as they both bore little to resemblance to what I was seeing from the balcony, but I knew in my bones that the clouds (and rain) would be coming at some point later. 

 

In the end, I managed to grab 35 usable 180s subs before the skies became impenetrable.

 

As my other half is at her sister’s this weekend, I was able to fully black out the living room and located myself in the kitchen/dining room, keeping an eye on things via ASIair on my iPhone.  
 

With the help of a homemade mushroom pizza and a bottle of red, I managed to get all of John Huston’s “Moby Dick” watched on the iPad before the opportunistic session was up. 
 

So here’s my first image of 2023 - M97 and M108 using the Skywatcher 80ED, ASI294mc pro and Optolong L-Pro. 
 

Stacked in Astro Pixel Processor and processed in Photoshop CC. 
 

 

and just for good measure, here’s my earlier work in the kitchen 🤣

 

 

Tony

[Dmack1]

That's come out nicely. I'd probably have thrown some ham and oregano on it myself but each to their own. 😁

 

The astro image is great, especially for under 2 hours. I do like that field. I did it with my 80ED a couple of years back and think the contrasting shapes and colours of the two subjects make it really interesting.

[Astrobdlbug]

Great composition of two objects and admirable dedication given the conditions.

little bit of feedback - looks a tad green on the iPhone 

 

Could have done a face on image of your pizza like the French physicist did with a slice of chorizo and he trolled JWST followers saying it was close up of a nearby star.

The fungi galaxy as seen from Tony’s balcony 

 

Bryan

 

 

[mightymonoped]

1 hour ago, Astrobdlbug said:

Great composition of two objects and admirable dedication given the conditions.

little bit of feedback - looks a tad green on the iPhone 

 

Could have done a face on image of your pizza like the French physicist did with a slice of chorizo and he trolled JWST followers saying it was close up of a nearby star.

The fungi galaxy as seen from Tony’s balcony 

 

Bryan

 

 

 

Bryan,

Do you mean the whole thing is a tad green or the Owl Nebula?

I did do a star colour calibration in APP.

Apparently the Owl Nebula Green v Blue is a bit of a hot topic. From what I understand most of its light is green, hence I left it be, rather than applying any HLVG.

Tony

[Astrobdlbug]

1 hour ago, mightymonoped said:

Apparently the Owl Nebula Green v Blue is a bit of a hot topic.

Yes - it was the Owl I was referring to and that’s very informative that it could in fact have a green component in its colour as I’ve always read that the colour green doesn’t exist in space …. as I am sure many of us have.

Nice one Tony - always interesting nuggets of information in this astronomy lark.

Bryan

 

[Sonyme]

I'm good with the green owl. As for the pizza, I'm glad it's almost lunch time.....'00' flour I presume?     Gary

[mightymonoped]

2 hours ago, Sonyme said:

I'm good with the green owl. As for the pizza, I'm glad it's almost lunch time.....'00' flour I presume?     Gary

I was experimenting, a mix of Strong/Plain Flour and Fine Semolina. Not bad but not thin enough. 😊

[Sonyme]

It looked delicious.     Gary

[Greg M]

Nice colors and details on 97 & 108.

The pizza nebula looks a little over saturated though. 😁